Residential building consents

Applications can be complex. Council recommends you engage a professional to help with the design work and drawings.

Building consent application documents

The building consent application is made up of:

a completed application form

a completed lodgement checklist (BC78)

a certificate of title *

a set of plans

specifications

certificate of design work (restricted building work only)

any other documentation as stated on the lodgement checklist that is relevant to your project

* Note: the certificate of title must be less than three months old. Title can be obtained from LINZ website. If the site is new and does not yet have a Title, then a subdivision scheme plan is required.

Incomplete applications take a lot of time to work through and this slows the process for other people. Please be conscientious when submitting your application. Make use of the included lodgement checklist to ensure all the relevant information is supplied to Council.

Restricted building work

‘Restricted building work’ is work that’s critical to make a home structurally sound and weathertight. You must use Licensed Building Practitioners (LBPs) to design and carry out this work. LBPs must do or supervise this work.

The person applying for building consent is responsible for submitting the Memorandum (Certificate of Design Work) with their application. As the designer, you must provide a Memorandum (Certificate of Design Work) to the building owner. This Memorandum (Certificate of Design Work) needs to be given to the council when applying for building consent.

Building work that is in the Restricted Building Work category must only be done by or under the supervision of Licensed Building Practitioners (LBP), unless you are using the Owner-Builder Exemption. Please refer to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment's website for more information on the owner-builder exemption.

How to make an appointment for further advice

Please phone 03 546 0200 if you would like to make an appointment to speak to the Duty Building Officer.

Important note

Once a consent has been issued building work must commence within twelve (12) months of the date of issue. If it does not, the consent will lapse and a new consent must be applied for unless an extension of further time to commence work has been applied for and approved by the Building Consent Authority.